As part of our investigation into ways of diverting unwanted items from our local landfill, we made a “enlightening” stop to learn the heavy truth about all the clothing people donate to local thrift stores: busloads of clothes! At Positive Apparel in Nelson, by sorting, pricing, placing and selling, they keep many donated items in circulation by finding new homes to be reused and provide our community with affordable used products.
However, there is an unbelievable amount of fabrics that don’t sell in our local market. Previously, dumpster after dumpster of this unwanted clothing and textiles would be dumped into the landfill at Ooteschenia.
At Positive Apparel they now gather truckloads of unsellable material from their donations and many other thrift stores in the West Kootenay. More than the weight of a school bus of fabric is diverted from the landfill every four weeks and shipped to the Lower Mainland!
Here, students in Mr. Geddis’ grade 5/6 class look in amazement at the volume of unwanted clothes awaiting transport to a “new” life in the global textile recycling market.
